As the afternoon fades and evening begins to take hold, I frown at the half-finished canvas in front of me. In my mind's eye I can see what I want to create, but for some reason I haven't been able to make that vision a reality. Sighing in disgust, I resist the urge to kick something and instead resign myself to the fact that I'm not going to get anything more done on this painting tonight.
I turn off the lights in the studio and walk down the hallway, wondering what Orli's doing. It's almost dinnertime, and I hope he's in the mood for takeout because I really don't have the energy to cook. The entire day feels like a waste because of my lack of production in the studio and I'm in a pretty lousy mood right now.
When I reach the kitchen, Orli looks up from the counter and grins. "Hey, I was just about to come get you."
"What's this?" I ask, gesturing to the food on the table. "Did you order something?"
"No, I cooked for you."
"You? *You* cooked?" I look at the vegetable stir-fry and rice in disbelief -- Orli can barely boil water, let alone cook an entire meal for two. "Really?"
"Yeah." He's grinning like crazy and looks very pleased with himself. "Impressed?"
"Very impressed. What brought on this attempt at culinary greatness?"
"Well, I knew you were in a bad mood and I thought maybe I could cheer you up by cooking you dinner." His grin turns into a shy smile. "I know how much you like stir-fry and the recipe looked fairly easy, so I gave it a shot."
"Orli . . . thank you," I say simply. He really is the sweetest man in the world.
"You're welcome."
"I'm sorry I'm in a bad mood, it's just this painting was driving me crazy this afternoon."
"Don't worry about it," he assures me. "Everyone has their bad days." He leans forward and kisses me gently. "Now let's eat before the food gets cold."
*****
It turns out that dinner is excellent. Orli beams with pride when I tell him how good it is, that incredible smile lighting up his entire face. My bad mood is long gone by the time we clear the dishes; it's next to impossible to stay grumpy when Orli's around. Tonight it's just the two of us (Henry is spending the week with Exene), and our plans for the evening consist of reading and watching television.
"This is nice," Orli comments as we settle on the bed to see what's on TV.
"What is?"
"This," he says, gesturing between us. "The domestic bliss thing, you know? Not having to do anything or be anywhere."
"Yeah, it's nice," I agree with a smile.
"I wish I didn't have to go to England next month," he sighs, leaning back so his head is against my shoulder.
"It won't be so bad. You'll get to see your family and friends."
"But I'm going to miss your gallery opening. I feel terrible about that."
"Don't feel bad, love," I assure him, kissing the top of his head. "You've seen everything that I'm going to exhibit. Let's just make the best of the time we have together. Besides, you're not going anywhere for three weeks."
"True." He looks up at me and smiles. "Wanna see what's on the telly? Maybe porn?"
I laugh loudly as I find the remote control and switch on the TV. "You have a one-track mind, don't you?"
"That I do." His brow furrows in confusion as he looks at the screen. "What's C-SPAN?"
"It's political coverage. Not exactly what we're looking for tonight." We flip through random basketball games, a 'Rambo' movie, and a rerun of 'Beverly Hills 90210'.
"American television is pathetic," Orli declares. "Hey, what's this?" he asks, sitting up as I reach a new channel.
"Um, it's a show called 'Cops'. It's basically the police arresting people who then proceed to make asses out of themselves on TV."
"And people actually watch this?"
"Yeah." I chuckle and continue flipping the channels.
"Infomercials!" he exclaims. "Lij loves these."
"Lij is insane," I remind him.
"Look Vig, the woman is saying that this dress 'will make you irresistible to that special man in your life'," Orli laughs. "Maybe I should order it and see if that's true." I raise my eyebrows as I look at the pink suede halter dress with rhinestones featured in the infomercial.
"If you ever wore that, I might have a heart attack from laughing too much."
"You wouldn't find me irresistible?" he pouts.
I laugh and kiss him. "You're always irresistible."
"Yeah, I know," he jokes.
"Arrogant boy." I continue to scan the channels. "What about this?" I ask when we reach Comedy Central. "They're playing 'Dogma'."
"Perfect," he says, snuggling up to me. "You know, I was thinking that if they ever remake this movie they should cast Ian as Metatron. He's got that whole authoritative thing going but he also has plenty of cheek."
"That he does." The movie goes to a commercial break and I can't help but laugh as the ad for 'Fellowship' comes on. "There we are, love."
"Look at that," Orli says disgustedly when the Aragorn/Arwen kiss flashes across the screen. "He's kissing the wrong elf!" he shouts at the TV. "God, I wish Pete had taken my suggestion to make Legolas the one Aragorn really loved."
"You actually suggested that?" I laugh.
"No. But it would have made the movies even better."
"Orlando, if you had your way the movies would have been an Aragorn/Legolas porn trilogy."
"And what's wrong with that?"
"Well for one thing, I'm not wild about the idea of millions of people watching us have sex. Or seeing you naked. I'm the only one who gets to see you naked."
"Yes, you are," he agrees, giving me a coquettish smile. "Care to see me naked right now?"
I answer him by grabbing the remote and turning off the television. Orli laughs and pulls me down for a kiss, his laughter turning to a moan when I dip my tongue into his mouth. My hand lifts the hem of his faded tee-shirt so I can run my palm over the flat plane of his stomach, briefly skimming over the spot under his ribs that makes him choke back laughter. I break the kiss so I can pull the tee-shirt off of him, smiling as tantalizing olive skin and dusky nipples are revealed.
"You're beautiful," I tell him. God only knows how many times I've said that, but his beauty still takes my breath away. I lower my lips to his neck and nip at the smooth skin I encounter.
"Viggo," he whispers as I move down and take an erect nipple into my mouth, sucking on it until I hear him moan. Satisfied, I turn my attention to the other nipple and pull at it with my teeth, immediately soothing the sting with tender licks. I kiss a trail down his stomach until I reach his boxers, and then slide the underwear off of his body so I can indeed see him naked.
"Beautiful," I say again.
He blushes from the compliment. "Well, I don't think I should be the only one naked here." His hands pull impatiently at my clothes until I'm as naked as he is. "Much better. Why do we even bother with clothes? We should be hedonists and walk around in the nude all day," he suggests, running his hands over my back and pulling me closer to him. "It's not as if your neighbors live close enough to see anything."
"But I'd never get anything done," I explain as I position myself between his legs. "I'd just want to have sex with you all day long." I drag my tongue along the sensitive vein on the underside of his cock, causing him to moan softly. "And as much as I love having sex with you, I do have other obligations."
"Vig, why are you talking?" Orli gasps. "Use your mouth for better purposes."
I laugh and lean forward, taking the head of his erection into my mouth and sucking it. Precum trickles down my throat as I slide my mouth down his length until I've taken him all the way in. My throat muscles swallow around his cock and he reflexively bucks his hips; I put my hands firmly on his hips to keep him steady as I set my own pace of sucking and licking.
Orli makes an indignant sound of protest when I pull my mouth off of his cock, but I quickly silence him by moving up the bed and kissing him deeply. We're on our sides facing each other now, one of my legs slung around his waist and our cocks pushing up against one another. I take one of his hands and put it on my cock, a wordless plea for gratification. In return, I wrap my fingers around his saliva-coated erection and begin to stroke it.
We groan into another kiss and rock our hips together as we work at bringing each other to orgasm. His free hand plays with one of my nipples, tweaking it just firmly enough to send a bolt of pleasure straight to my groin. "I'm close," I breathe as his skillful fingers dance on the head of my cock.
"So am I," he moans, his breath hot against my skin. "Come for me, Viggo." He presses a gentle bite to my neck. "Come for me," he says again. Unable to resist his plea, I lose myself, groaning his name as I come; his own climax follows a moment later, and I muffle his cries by kissing him again.
When the last aftershocks of orgasm have finished wracking our bodies, we lie there content in each other's arms. I finally break the embrace and rummage through the drawer of the nightstand for the all-essential wet-naps so I can clean the stickiness that coats our hands and stomachs. Once the wet-naps have been disposed of, we both put our boxers on again and get under the covers.
"What time is it?" Orli asks as he curls around me.
"About ten-thirty," I say, looking over at the clock. "You tired?"
"A little."
"I thought young people were supposed to be blessed with incredible stamina," I tease. He sticks his tongue out at me and I laugh, kissing the silky curls on his head. "I love your hair like this. Have I told you that?"
"Only a million times," he says with a smile. "Hey, where's the remote?"
"Um, it's next to the bed. Why?"
"Those infomercials were really funny. I'm beginning to see why Lij likes them so much." Orli turns on the TV and switches back to the Home Shopping Network. "Wow, they have miniature ceramic poodles! We should buy some!"
"Why on earth would we do that?"
"Because if they're pose-able we can arrange them so we have ceramic poodles going at it. You know, like what I did with our action figures."
I laugh, remembering what happened a few days ago when I got in the car to find the Aragorn and Legolas action figures arranged in an extremely suggestive position on the dashboard. "So you think we should get the ceramic poodles?"
"Definitely. And the one they're featuring now has a dress on, which is really cute."
"Love, you're starting to worry me."
He picks up the cordless phone from the nightstand. "What's your credit card number? I'm going to call and order these poodles."
"Like hell you are!" I exclaim, grabbing the phone away from him and tossing it onto the floor. "You are *not* bringing those things into this house."
"Poodle-hater!" he cries, tackling me and pinning me to the mattress. "I'm not letting you up until you let me order the poodles."
"Orli, look -- they're advertising porcelain flatworms," I lie.
"Really?" He turns around and I kick his leg out from under him, freeing my body from his weight. "Vig, that's playing dirty!" he shrieks as he falls onto the mattress. "That's *so* not fair."
"When have I ever played fair?" I ask with a grin.
"Mmm, never," he says, drawing me down for a kiss. When we pull apart, he smiles at me. "You may be a poodle-hater, but I love you all the same."
"I love you too, my crazy Orli."
